Michael Reid
Moderator

Mike Reid joined The Economist in 1990 as Mexico and Central America Correspondent and in 1994 changed to cover consumer industries. In 1996 he moved to Sao Paulo to be the Bureau Chief and in 1999 he returned to London as Americas Editor. Prior to this, he was based in Lima, Peru working for The Economist, The Guardian and the BBC. His book 'Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul' was published by Yale University Press in November 2007.

Roberto Kriete Avila
Panelist

Roberto Kriete Avila was born in El Salvador on March 28 of 1953. As the grandson of a local airline business owner, he became interested in aviation at an early age. He finished his school years with a combination of local and abroad studies in prestigious institutions. He holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Santa Clara in California and an MBA from Boston College in Massachusetts. Upon his return to El Salvador he got married to Celina Sol, with whom they raised two children, Roberto and Fernando. Currently Roberto Kriete acts as Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of TACA, the aviation company with direct operations in North, Central, and South America. He is President of the Kriete Group, an investment company with local and foreign investments in different economic sectors, such as aviation, real estate, agro-industry, hotels, venture capital, and private equity. He belongs to the Board of Directors of Real Intercontinental Hotel of San Salvador; the Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios, leading business administration and economics school in El Salvador; Ágape, a non-government organization that combines social assistance programs with sustainable development initiatives; and Volaris, a low cost airline from Mexico. President of the Gloria de Kriete Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports institutions that help low-income people in El Salvador and President of the Coatepeque Foundation, a non-profit environmental organization aimed to protect the natural resources of the Coatepeque Lake of El Salvador. He has also been a member of the board of Banco Agrícola of El Salvador, Fundacion Empresarial para el Desarrollo Educativo (FEPADE), and Fundacion Salvadoreña para la Salud y el Desarrollo Humano (FUSAL). He has received distinctions as Officer of the Legion of Honor of the French Government, on December 2006 and became an Honorary Member of the Salvadoran Foundation for the Economic and Social Development, on April 2007.

Mireya Blavia de Cisneros
Panelist

Mireya Blavia de Cisneros was born in Santiago,Chile, on July 20th, 1963. Her father is Mr. Marco Antonio Blavia and her mother is Mrs. Julia Gómez de Blavia. The second child of four siblings, she moved with her family to Venezuela when she was eight years old and became a Venezuelan citizen at 18. After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Psicopedagogy and Counseling at the Jean Piaget Institute of Caracas, she began to work with adult populations with Down Syndrome, brain paralysis and other conditions; additionally, she worked as an educator at the Psicopedagogy Institute of Caracas. Her field experience gave her a strong belief that the positive impact she was seeking in these disadvantaged sectors of the population would not be enough without the support of other sectors in society. At the age of 25 she became an entrepreneur in the field, promoting events and initiatives to help vulnerable groups. In 1999 she married Venezuelan entrepreneur Oswaldo Cisneros, and since then she has engaged with her husband's companies, managing resources and participating in social development and corporate social responsibility initiatives. Along with her husband, she founded the Venezuela Sin Limites Foundation, which offers support to over 340 social development organizations with more than 600 locations throughout Venezuela.
In 2002, she and her husband adopted four Romanian children, but she has continued her career in volunteering organizations, corporate social responsibility, social investment and social causes. She now chairs the Venezuela Sin Límites Foundation and the Prevención sin Límites Association for the prevention of drug abuse. She is currently a board member in Senos Ayuda, an organization for the prevention of breast cancer; Asocirpla, an organization assisting burnt children; Alianza Social of Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce, and Fedecámaras, the Federation of Venezuela Entreprises Chambers of Commerce. She is an advisor of the Civil Society Council for Venezuela of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Maryse Pénette-Kedar
Panelist

Maryse Pnette-Kedar is currently the President of the Board of Wyclef Jean's Foundation Yéle Haiti, a position allowing her to work closely with the international community and the private sector in order to help Haitians in need through the implementation of various programs ranging from education, health, and sports to musical arts. Through Yéle Haiti, Maryse Kedar has been able to assist a large variety of Haitian NGOs who are working to make a difference in Haiti. Mrs. Kedar is the past President of the Haitian Industrial Association (ADIH), representing the largest number of the Haitian workforce. The Industrial Association does not only include the garment and assembly sectors, but also artisan workers, cigarette manufacturing, flour production and more. Since 2000, Mrs. Kedar has been a senior consultant for Royal Caribbean International in Haiti, as well as the President of SOLANO, the local company representing Royal Caribbeans interests in northern Haiti. This is the only initiative of its kind in Haiti, bringing close to half a million tourists to the country each year. Mrs. Kedar was very active as Secretary of State in the Ministry of Tourism, where she was able to reintroduce the cruise industry to Haiti, and she was the key player in the development of the first Tourism Masterplan for the country. She also represented Haiti to the Benelux countries, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, where she was the principal negotiator in entering Haiti into the Lomé Convention for trade and aid between the European Union and African and Caribbean countries. Mrs. Kedar is one of the Founding Members of foundation FHAME (Fondation Haitienne des Maladies Endemiques) whose role was to support the Haitian Study Group on Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO). In her spare time, Maryse Kedar manages the various projects of Foundation PRODEV, founded by her father; Max Penette. Foundation PRODEV stands for Progress and Development and is geared towards the development of Haiti's youth.

Ed Scott
Panelist

Ed Scott is an experienced and successful business executive, a former Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Government and an active supporter of a number of philanthropic initiatives. He is a strong supporter of a number of HIV/AIDS programs, and is the founder and Chairman of Friends of the Global Fight, which, with the assistance of the Gates Foundation, provides support in the U.S. for The Global Fund to Fight for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. In early 1995, Mr. Scott founded BEA Systems, Inc. with the other two principals of the company, Bill Coleman, and Alfred Chuang. Mr. Scott served both as President of BEA and as Executive Vice President for World Wide Field Operations, supervising BEA's sales, marketing, and services operations. BEA currently is in the process of being acquired by Oracle Corporation. Since withdrawing from direct management at BEA, Mr. Scott has become involved in a variety of philanthropic initiatives, including the funding and support of several orphanages and child development centers in Central America. Mr. Scott also has provided substantial financial and advisory support to Compassion International, a faith-based children’s development group which aids over 850,000 children in 23 countries including active HIV/AIDS programs in five countries in Africa. In 2001, he founded and provided funding for the Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington, D.C., a highly regarded think tank. Mr. Scott also serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for International Economics (IIE), a long-standing leader in international economic policy analysis. Mr. Scott also is a co-founder, along with Bill Gates and George Soros, of DATA, an advocacy organization dedicated to building public and political awareness about development problems in Africa, most notably the HIV/Aids pandemic. Mr. Scott also worked in the U.S. government for 17 years, and he served as an Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Transportation during the Carter Administration. Mr. Scott earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in political science from Michigan State University. He also has a bachelor's degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from the University of Oxford (UK) where he recently endowed a Chair and two research fellowships dedicated to the study of the causes and possible treatments of autism and Asperger’s syndrome. He also established a special program at University College, Oxford, for admission of students with severe disabilities. Mr. Scott serves on the Board of Trustees of the Florida Institute of Technology, Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy and the King Center for the Performing Arts in Melbourne, Florida. He also serves on the Boards of Malaria No More and the Washington National Cathedral. In addition, he is the Chairman of the Board of the Florida Beer Company, and he was a member of the Board of StubHub, Inc., a highly successful internet ticketing company acquired by eBay, Inc. in 2007. Mr. Scott also owns and operates the Kiwi Tennis Club in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida.

María Eugenia Garcés-Campagna
Panelist

María Eugenia Garcés-Campagna is one of the founding members and Chair of the Board of Fundación Alvaralice, a family foundation based in Colombia working towards breaking the cycles of poverty and violence that plague local communities by creating opportunities and facilitating synergistic partnerships between the various sectors of Colombian society and international organizations. Fundación Alvaralice supports programs in the areas of peace building, income generation and microcredit, healthcare and education. Current projects include initiatives that support the country’s peace and reconciliation process, through projects that deal with at-risk youth through the application of restorative justice and peaceful conflict resolution practices, self-esteem reinforcement workshops and vocational training programs. In February 2005, the Foundation served as the lead organizer behind The International Symposium on Restorative Justice and Peace in Colombia, attended by 1,600 people, where Nobel Peace Prize, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 138 other national and international experts participated. In addition, Fundación Alvaralice was instrumental in the creation of the first grass-roots microcredit program in Cali, Colombia, based on the Grameen model and supports initiatives that encourage business entrepreneurship, such as a project funded by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the inter-American Bank that promotes the creation of new businesses among young entrepreneurs by providing counseling and start-up capital.

Bill Gates will be the keynote speaker at an April 4 seminar in Miami, Florida, that will showcase the growth and potential of corporate philanthropy in Latin America, a region that has long held the unenviable record of having the world’s most polarized income distribution. The event will take place during the Inter-American Development Bank’s annual meeting.

The founder and chairman of Microsoft Corporation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will engage in a public conversation with IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno on opportunities for individual donors, corporations and foundations to combine good ideas, talent and market incentives in programs to improve living standards in the Americas. Moreno, a believer in the power of partnerships involving non-profits, governments and businesses, has also invited leaders of major U.S., European and Latin American companies with innovative corporate social responsibility programs to address an audience of policymakers, executives and donors.

Among the speakers will be Western Union CEO Christina Gold, Telefonica CEO César Alierta, Televisa CEO Emilio Azcárraga, and Grupo TACA CEO Roberto Kriete. Representing the non-profit sector will be Maryse Penette-Kedar, president of Yéle Haiti Foundation; Mireya de Cisneros, president of Fundación Venezuela Sin Límites; Maria Eugenia Garcés-Campagna, chair of Fundación Alvaralice in Colombia; and Ed Scott, chair of the Center for Global Development.

For more information on this event, please contact Muriel Alfonseca, of the IDB’s Outreach and Partnerships Office, at (202) 623-2041 or muriela@iadb.org.

The private sector is a powerful ally in the fight for poverty reduction, both as a source of endowment for Foundations and as directly as a partner in bringing market-based incentives and global talent to improve the quality of lives.

Foundations and corporate responsibility initiatives which the private sector leaders are establishing are transforming development. No longer is it “business as usual” as private philanthropy and corporations engage in market-based approaches to addressing global development challenges. They bring with them resources and great innovation.

Philanthropic, work in Latin America and the Caribbean has evolved from traditional poverty alleviation through charitable or church-based giving, to now include other forms of engagement and expanded scope ranging from , community and institutional development, public policy and governance. Most importantly, we are witnessing engaging the financial and non-financial contributions and solutions from individuals, institutions and corporations to contribute towards the enhancement of the quality of life.

Corporate philanthropic organizations and foundations not only have a vision for social change but are willing to take risks and are bringing a strategic approach to their work
Such strategic philanthropy through the private sector is demonstrating that the competitive advantages of a society and corporations can be mutually reinforcing.

Partnerships with corporations, foundations, and individual donors are key actors in the Inter-American Development Bank’s new initiative to mobilize private and public resources and support their efforts to do more – with more creativity and more flexibility. By leveraging resources, scaling-up and by supporting innovative joint ventures with the Bank’s extensive technical knowledge and experience in the Region, the IADB can help accelerate the momentum and support the impact of strategic interventions of individuals, foundations and corporations

The generosity of private donors combined with the Bank’s regional and technical expertise creates a powerful formula for success and serves as a valuable investment in the future of our region.

Today’s seminar will discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by philanthropic organizations, corporations, private individuals and foundations in their efforts to make lasting contributions to the lives and well-being of the people in the region. The seminar will also give us an opportunity to highlight how the IADB can support these vital partners.

Through partnerships, we can, together, increase our combined impact and support enduring and sustainable impact.

1. What is the new role for International Financial Institutions in this new global economy?
"In this new global economy where countries go directly to capital markets to finance growth, International Financial Institutions must remake themselves in order to continue playing a critical role: ensuring that the people - their families and the broader communities - share the benefits of economic growth. We can do this by focusing on our strengths - our convening power, our rigorous economic and sector work, and the depth of our knowledge. We have the brainpower to innovate and the partners to help us translate our ideas into reality. Bill Gates, as an example, has called for a new era of creative capitalism – one in which companies can deliver profits and public good at the same time. IDB is well placed to be a leader of this movement in the Americas, working country by country and community by community to catalyze and facilitate capital investments for the purpose of poverty reduction."

2. How will partnerships transform the way the IDB works?
"Rather than thinking of partners as vehicles to help IDB deliver on our goals, we need to be partnering with companies, other IFI's, bilateral agencies, private foundations and civil society to help them realize their goals, which of course we also share. We will be reaching out to our partners to find out how the IDB can bring to bear its experience, relationships, and financing to play a catalytic role to engage others in our fight to reduce poverty and improve the lives of the citizens who we serve. Partnerships bring us leverage, implementation power, and the scale to effect enduring and sustainable impact. We are now organizing ourselves better to be able to work more effectively and flexibly with others."

3. What is the role of the private sector in poverty reduction in the Americas , and how is IDB positioned to help companies' philanthropy support markets - that is, make profits and "do good"? "The incentives for the private sector to improve lives while making profits are there, but need to be sharpened. IDB can help accelerate this process by ensuring that government policies at every level create the investment climate to attract socially and environmentally sustainable investment by private sector companies."

4. Why is the time now to redefine and renew IDB?
"Next year, we will mark the 50th year that we have been working towards improving peoples' lives within our hemisphere. It is time not only for reflection, but action. With the perspective we now have on our work, and the existence of new players in the development scene who are challenging the conventional wisdom and having real impact, we at the IDB need to be leaner, and more focused. The time is now for us to re-invigorate, redefine and re-tool IDB for the future."